Two reports - The Ghana Advertised Job Vacancies, 2006 and Job Tracking Survey 2006 - were on Thursday launched in Accra by the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu. The reports prepared by the Ghana Statistical Service were meant to monitor the number of jobs created across the country in line with the 2006 budget. It is also based on the premise that credible statistics on job creation would aid decision-making and help monitor job creation in various districts and sectors of the economy. According to "The Ghana: Advertised Job Vacancies Report," which examined jobs advertisements in the two national dailies, the Daily Graphic and the Ghanaian Times, 2006 witnessed some degree of robustness in job vacancy advertisements with an average of 155 vacancies in a month. The report identified December 2006 as the month with the highest advertisements of 256 vacancies. The study recorded a total of 1,860 advertised vacancies for 3,655 job openings in the labour market from January to December 2006. It said more than half of the jobs advertised were based in Accra, closely followed by the Ashanti Region with the requirements being for professionals. "Data available shows that about one out of every two advertised job vacancies were on offer to first degree holders with the requirement asking for a specified age limits that were meant for the young persons aged between 25 and 34 years." The report indicated that the private sector continued to play a leading role in demand for vacancies with the privately owned enterprises recording more that 82 per cent of the advertised job vacancies as compared to state-owned enterprises, which recorded about 15 percent. The study said job seekers who were not computer literate were not likely to succeed in the Ghana labour market and that some employers in the formal sector also looked for a working language in French. The study showed that the unemployment rate among those with little or no education was likely to be higher than those with post-secondary education. "From the evidence outlined in the study, Ghana faces an important policy challenge in strengthening efforts in absorbing its trained workforce in the formal sector." The Job Tracking Survey Report indicated that a male held two out of every three established posts, with more females working as clerks. The report indicated that a significant proportion of the establishment paid below two million cedis a month with the largest number of them being in the service sector. "About 60 per cent of the highest paid worker works in the services sector. These were found to include those working in financial institutions, ICT and air transport." The report stated that Ghana faced an important policy challenge in strengthening its efforts to create jobs to significantly reduce unemployment. Source: GNA